With a recovering John Force watching from the sidelines, Austin Prock and Jack Beckman delivered the ultimate “get well” message Sunday, driving their respective Chevrolet Camaros into the semifinals of the 24th NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and assuring JFR of its 21st NHRA Funny Car Championship.
A lengthy cleanup operation following an incident involving the Top Fuel dragster of Shawn Langdon, coupled with cooler air and track temperatures, compelled NHRA officials to suspend racing and postpone completion of the event until Monday. Competition will resume with Prock opposing Blake Alexander in one Funny Car semifinal and Beckman facing Paul Lee in the other.
After qualifying No. 1 for the second straight tour event, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force authored her own “welcome back” message to her dad by driving her Chevrolet Accessories dragster into the final round for the first time this season with a chance to win a Mission Foods tour event for the first time in two calendar years. She will oppose Kalitta.
“This Chevrolet Accessories team has been running strong all weekend long,” said the 2x Top Fuel Champion, “And we are in the finals. Unfortunately, it’s delayed to tomorrow. But we will be ready for it.”
By reaching the penultimate round, Prock, the 29-year-old driver of the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS, and Beckman, driving the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Camaro in relief of Force, insured that one or the other of them will win the Funny Car championship and become the fourth different JFR driver to do so. It will be the team’s 21st Funny Car title and its 23rd overall.
Prock will leave LVMS with no less than 2622 points; Beckman with no more than 2514. The next closest driver in points is Ron Capps with 2411, not enough to offset Prock’s 211-point advantage even with extra points available at the season-ending In-N-Out Burger Finals at Pomona, Calif. The most points Capps could earn in that race is 191.
“We were racing smart today,” said an elated Prock, “just trying to get it done for the boss. Credit to this Cornwell Tools team, my dad (crew chief Jimmy Prock), my brother Thomas, Nate Hildahl and everybody else that makes it happen.”
Prock’s teammate, 2012 NHRA Funny Car champion Jack Beckman, was just as focused.
“It’s been an odd weekend of racing,” Beckman said. “I’ve had plenty of late rounds postponed to the next day due to weather. I can’t think of any postponed due to excessive track cleanup. And what happened out here this weekend is kind of unprecedented. But we want to race our PEAK Chevy when the conditions are fair and adequate for us. It will just be a Monday trophy. I’ve got a bunch of those at home, and they’re the exact same size as the Sunday trophies.”
